“A Horse with No Name” on the rocks at Central Park.

Ventura Highway

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GQ

The rehearsal for tomorrow night’s Carnegie Hall benefit show is tonight at City WInery.

The Roots were just seen hanging out in the lower level.

Fear of Music

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GQ

Nassau Coliseum 

June 12, 1979

Madison Square Garden 

June 13,  June 14,  June 15, 1979

New Haven Coliseum 

June 16,  June 17, 1979

Springfield Civic Center 

June 18, 1979

The Spectrum, Philadelphia 

June 22, 1979

Yes in the Round. 

Eight shows in 11 days.

Steve, Joe and I went on a rock and roll road trip completely emersing ourselves in the Yes experience.

We attended so many shows in the front orchestra during that particular tour that Steve Howe’s guitar tech Claude gave us backstage passes for Springfield, Massachusetts. 

That day in Springfield we had time to kill so we arrived at the arena early enough in the afternoon to , by complete chance, catch the band rehearsing  “Arriving U.F.O.”  

We heard Yes playing and made our way to the one spot In the arena lobby where we actually had a view of the band, in their “civilian” clothes, playing a song they never did play in concert during this stretch of the tour. We were hooting and hollering enough to alert security that we were there and to be asked to leave. This was Rock and Roll fun and hijinks at its innocent best.

I never did confirm this, but I believe Howe’s guitar tech may have been “Funky Claude” from Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water” (whether this is true or not I have no idea but it makes for a nice anecdote).

While backstage in Springfield I got a little caught up in the moment and with youthful exuberance I walked up to drummer Alan White who was in a conversation with an older well to do couple. I clearly interrupted them and with absolutely nothing to say except for something like “I saw you guys play last night” the perplexed White went back to his earlier conversation.

The 1979 Yes tour was a whirlwind of music and teenage adventure.

On the Silent Wings of Freedom

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GQ

Capitol Theater, N.J-

 Friday, May 11, 1979

The Paladium- 

Tuesday, May 22, 1979

Wednesday, May 23, 1979

The Patti Smith Group became a bit of an obsession in May, 1979.

Patti Smith was poetic, artistic, and a bit mysterious with a band, led by Lenny Kaye on guitar, that rocked.

The albums “Radio Ethiopia”, “Easter” and “Wave” were in constant rotation on my turntable. The Patti Smith Group exuded a downtown Manhattan  vibe that  had evolved from the early New York City punk rock movement.

Ironically the band’s biggest radio hit, “Because the Night”, was written by Bruce Springsteen.

Besides being a punk rock goddess and muse to a generation of rock and rollers who followed in the footsteps and continue to stand with her on stage today, the multitalented Smith is also an author of several books. 

She is still creating great music and can be found performing with her daughter Jesse Smith Hands on Live Friday, 3/27/15 at (Le) Poisson Rouge 158 Bleeker Street, New York City.

Fittingly Patti Smith will induct the great Lou Reed, another NYC icon. posthumously into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year.

Just Kids

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GQ

The New Barbarians were a band consisting of Ronnie Wood, Keith Richards, Ian McLagan, Stanley Clarke. Zigaboo Modeliste, and Bobby Keys. 

The Rolling Stones were on hiatus and had not toured in awhile, so with Wood, Richards, and the late great Stones saxophone player Bobby Keys  in the band, everyone was hoping for an impromptu Rolling Stones reunion to happen.

Mick Jagger did not appear but the all star band provided the exuberant crowd with a good old fashioned rock and roll show for the ages.

My friends and I somehow made our way into the front left orchestra and managed to squeeze on to the top of the folding chairs so that we could fully participate in this communal rock and roll celebration. 

When the lights came on at the end of the show and the exhausted crowd began to leave Madison Square Garden; smoke hung in the air over the mangled metal seats in an orchestra that looked as if a bomb went off. The power and glory of rock and roll sucked all of the palpable energy in the room and blew the lid off the place. It was a show for the ages and anyone that was lucky enough to be there got their rocks off. 

Before They Make Me Run

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GQ

A funny thing happened on the way to the Billy  Joel show Monday night. 

Monday nights are usually a tough night for most normal people to go to a concert so when a couple of friends bailed out at the last minute and my party of four was reduced to my son and I heading into NYC, I found myself with an extra pair of tickets in hand. 

We had left the house in plenty of time but with a little traffic. and a slightly tougher time than usual finding a parking space on the street, it was getting close to showtime when we arrived at Madison Square Garden. There weren’t a lot of people out front looking to buy tickets and the professional scdlpers were out in force. I normally stay clear of the professional scalpers but I was tired, it was already 8:30 and I wanted to cut my losses and get in to the show.

A scalper asked me what I wanted for the pair of nosebleed seats and I said I would take $50 for the pair or I would trade my four for two down low.

There was blood in the water and the sharks were circling. A scalper said he had two down low for my four up top. I looked at his two “Ticketmaster” tickets and knew that they did not look quite right. I looked the scalper in the eye and asked if these were good tickets and he said yes. I did not really want to sit up top for this show; it was getting late, and I figured I was about to eat two tickets anyway so I decided to roll the dice figuring the worst that could happen is that they were counterfeit tickets and we would be heading home early.

Well, the worst happened.

My son and I made our way through the multiple layers of security, pat downs, and metal detectors with no problem. When we got to the doors where the tickets are scanned the MSG employee took one look at the tickets and said they were counterfeit.

We hustled back to the steet in hopes of grabbing the guy who gave us the fake tickets but of course he was in the wind. I was more embarrassed by being taken by this guy than anything else. I broke one of my cardinal rules of not dealing with the professional scalpers for exactly what had occurred. Some guys are hustling to make a buck and are basically low level salesmen; others are thieves looking to rip you off and it is sometimes very difficult to discern between the two. New York City is full of street hustlers. 

I was off of my game that night and there is no one to blame for this particularly bad night but myself. Chalk one up for the bad guys but I will not be deterred. 

Last night my son and I ventured back out to NYC for redemption and a nice evening of musical entertainment at Town Hall featuring Seth Avett and Jessica Lea Mayfield who provided a show primarily of Elliot Smith tunes from their collaborative effort. They also mixed in Bob Dylan’s “Just Like a Woman” and a couple of Beatles tunes while the whole time playing in front of a home kitchen setting. This night took a bit of the sting out from our prior escapade into Manattan.

Let the buyer beware? Oh yeah!

A Matter of Trust

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GQ

Seth Avett of the Avett Brithers and Jessica Lea Mayfield are playing tonight at Town Hall in New York City. Town Hall is a magnificent midtown Manhattan venue that is smaller than the Beacon Theatre with great acoustics and sightlines. Town Hall is not an overly booked concert hall so it is always a treat to catch a contemporary act playing there.

Elliott Smith

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GQ

In my heavy metal Queens neighborhood, judas Priest ruled the day for quite some time (at least until Van Halen landed on the scene).

Hell Bent for Leather and British Steel propelled the band to the top of the metal heap (Rush was a different sort of animal altogether).

The leather clad Rob Halford was a bad-ass lead singer who could hit unearthly high notes while the dual guitar attack drove the music forward. The band was loud and in your face. Judas Priest were somewhat theatrical and put on a great stage show but they also had the songs to back up the bravado.

Judas Priest albums are chock full of great songs and never disappointed (well maybe they jumped the shark with “Nostradamus” but they had a great run before that).

My greatest memory from The Paladium show was going with my girlfriend/wife and us stopping at a dive bar in NYC with her ordering, for the first and only time, a “sloe gin fizz” from a bartender who had probably never made one before. This exotic cocktail was a strange blood red color and my future bride drank it quickly like a trooper. She never did feel quite right the rest of the evening and she learned a valuable lesson that day; 

Do not order a proper cocktail from a guy who appears to know only how to open beers and pour shots. 

Through the years Judas Priest consistently produced great albums that still hold up today and the live album “Unleashed in the East” is still one of my favorites. The band broke up, Rob Halford announced that he was gay and said that if you look at Judas Priest’s lyrics the clues were there all along, and after various other projects, the band eventually reunited to headline arenas.

What a long strange heavy metal trip its been indeed.

The Green Manalishi (With the two-pronged crown)?

Hot Rockin’

GQ